The Best Craft Room Ideas For 2018

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If you’re a serious crafter, then chances are you’ve considered devoting a whole room to your passion.

And if you’re looking for craft room ideas, then we’ve got a whole lot of inspiration for you right here.

We’re passionate about craft room design — from storage, products and accessories to those little things that help to bring the whole room together.

The Ideal Craft Room

Before you start raiding IKEA and Amazon for furniture, lighting and whatever else tickles your crafting pickle, it’s a good idea to envisage what your ideal craft room will look like when it’s finished.

Now, of course, this is a highly personal process.

What we love about our craft rooms will likely be different to what you want to see in yours.

Some people love lots of white, open space, while some of you will prefer a room adorned with artwork and other trinkets to inspire you in your craft.

But even aside from those personal touches, there are a few good rules of thumb to follow to create an incredible craft room:

Lots of light: whatever your craft, chances are you’ll need lots of light to be able to truly focus in on it. Ideally, that will be natural light, with large windows, but artificial lighting works well too — just make sure that you have enough of it!

Lots of storage: storage will be one of your larger ticket purchases when it comes to craft room design. Whether that’s cabinets, drawers, shelves or whatever, just be prepared to get storing.

Large workspace: another expense to contend with is ensuring that you have a large desk or table that you can actually craft on. The size you need will vary according to the type of crafting you do and how much space you take up.

Inspiration: what inspires you in your crafting? Remember to make the room your own, perhaps with artwork, photography, painted walls, trinkets… whatever you can think of.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to make your craft room a place where you want to spend time every single day.

Think of it as a sanctuary just for you.

That means you can design it exactly how you want to, paint it in the color scheme of your choice and just generally have it looking whatever way you want it to.

We always recommend exploring sites like Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration before you start designing — we’ve compiled some of the most beautiful craft rooms at the end of this post — to give you some idea about what your finished craft room might look like.

Things to Consider

Once you’ve decided on what you want your eventual room to look like, there are two major things to consider before you start buying:

Space

Budget

Obviously, if you’ve got a huge room and a large budget, you can essentially do whatever you want with your craft room design.

But, let’s face it, most of us are working with limited space and a low budget.

Never fear, however — these restrictions only inspire us to become even more creative with the resources we have. We’ve included some extra sections on small craft rooms ideas and craft room ideas on a budget too.

It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that you can create an incredible craft room regardless of the amount of space or money you have to spend on it. You just need to be careful when buying to ensure that you’re getting the most efficient products for your space and budget.

Now, enough with the consideration — let’s get down to what you might want to buy for your craft rooms.

Craft Room Ideas

We believe that you can divide your craft room purchases into 5 sections:

Furniture

Storage and organization

Lighting

Accessories

Color scheme

The major purchases are going to be in the first two sections: furniture and storage.

Lighting is really important when it comes to decorating your craft room. Without it, you’re going to be squinting for sure. For the sake of your eyes, invest in some good lighting!

Accessories are generally much smaller and can often be added later — they’re not what we would term essentials. We often include wall art and other little inspirational objects into this section.

And although color scheme is last in our list, it should actually be one of the first things you consider. This way, you can paint the craft room before you start moving all your furniture in, and you can choose your purchases to fit the color of the room.

Craft Room Furniture

There are two major pieces of furniture that you need: a workspace/desk and a chair.

These are the craft room furniture essentials — anything else you can add later or as you see fit.

Craft Room Desk

Before you do anything, make sure that you measure the space you have available for a desk.

This is likely going to be the largest object you buy for your craft room, so allow yourself as much room as possible.

At the very least, you should have enough space for whatever machine you spend most of your time crafting with — whether that’s a sewing machine, vinyl cutter or printing press.

Ideally, this desk will also have lots of storage space underneath it too — although if you’re on a budget, it’s often cheaper to simply buy a wide table instead.

It’s a little more impressive looking than the South Shore desk above, and it would be well suited to crafters who use their computers during their crafting sessions, as you could easily mount it in the central shelf.

It’s also bigger, with more concealed storage space.

Pros

61″ wide x 53.875″ tall x 25.625″ deep

Made from solid wood

Shelves are adjustable

Integrated damper for quiet door closing

Draws can be mounted to left or right

Beautiful white finish

Cons

More expensive

Needs to be against a wall

You might want to buy a craft table that’s specific to your actual craft. This is definitely a good idea if you’re committed to just one or two types of crafting.

Craft Room Storage and Organization

Storage is everything in a craft room. We all know how many accessories we need to do what we love — plus, we need somewhere to put our creations once they’re made!

You might have bought a desk or craft table like the ones above that come with plenty of storage. In which case, you probably won’t need too much extra — perhaps a couple of shelves and some storage boxes.

Here are all the types of craft room storage you might want to buy:

Shelves

Display cabinets

Racks

Storage carts

File sorters

Tool organizers that hang off the wall

Desktop craft organizer

To decide exactly what you need, it’s best to do an inventory of all the machines, accessories and materials you actually have and then buy storage to fit what you’ve already got.

Here’s a few of the craft room storage ideas that we own, all of which come with a Craft Schmaft recommendation 😉

If you’re looking for small craft room ideas, this wall organizer should be on your list on things to check out.

It hangs off the wall and provides a huge amount of extra storage for your tools and accessories. We actually started out with this in our shed to house our gardening tools, but quickly realized that it would come in handy in the craft room too.

It’s super strong and is also scratch and rust resistant. Winning!

Pros

Metal pegboard is 10 times stronger than traditional pegboard

Accepts slotted, stable and secure hooks, brackets, shelves and pegs

Panels are magnetic

Durable and study

Finish is scratch and rust resistant

Available in 36 different color combinations

Easy to install

Made in the USA

Accessories included

Cons

None!

Of course, there’s a whole world of opportunity when it comes to craft room organization. Although the three pieces above are the storage solutions that work for us, chances are you might be looking for something a little different.

Here’s a few other storage ideas that are worth checking out:

Accessories and Wall Art

When it comes to finding things that inspire you to add to your craft room, the onus is on you: this is a highly personal decision.

You should think about what inspires you to create in your day to day life: art? Gadgets? Trinkets and accessories?

We generally think that the best way to buy inspirational objects is simply to acquire them as you come across them instead of going out looking for them.

But, saying that, there are a huge number of online market places selling handmade, unique goods that might be calling out your name — you just need to find them.

Color Scheme

The color scheme that you decide to paint your craft room is another personal decision for you.

Speaking very generally, the rooms that work best are light and airy — whites, creams and pastel colors are particularly popular.

But if a deep red or an amethyst purple is more your style, then feel free to indulge that passion — perhaps consider balancing darker colors out with lighter accents around the room.

There should be a few principles you abide by to ensure that you don’t end up with clashing colors, however. Try some of these ideas out:

Go from dark to light — darker colors should be on the floor level, getting lighter on the walls and lighter still on the ceiling. This ensures that the room doesn’t have a boxed-in feeling

Consult a color wheel — you probably remember color wheels from school. Colors next to each other on the wheel tend to be relaxing and subtle when paired together, and colors opposite each other create more of a bold look

Neutrals never go out of fashion — whites, creams, grays all look great, especially when accented with bolder brights like turquoise, magenta and blood orange

The rule of three — don’t overwhelm your craft room with different colors, try to stick to a maximum of three across the room

Color theory is the best way to choose complementary colors when painting (via Wikimedia/Dicklyon)

If you’re looking for some color scheme inspiration, check out this article on the color palettes of 50 visually impactful websites. Yes, it’s designed to inspire websites, but there are some incredible combinations here that would look fantastic in a craft room too.

Small Craft Room Ideas

You might be thinking that this is all very well, but what about when you’re severely space limited? When your craft room is really just a box room? Or maybe even just a closet?

If you’re focusing on small craft room design, the number one weapon in your arsenal is undoubtedly storage.

With some clever design and forward planning, you’ll be able to make as much use out of your room as a crafter with a much bigger space to work with.

And just because you only have a tiny space, don’t despair! Take a look at this video of this beautiful ex-laundry room craft room and prepare to get inspired:

First off, take a look at some of those craft tables we recommended above. They really make the most of the space they take up, with a wide worktop and plenty of storage hidden underneath the table.

Some desks actually having folding tables that can be used to extend the work area by a significant amount. This means that you have plenty of space to craft and then can fold the desk away neatly when you’re ready to store it.

Another must-have are wall organizers. They can hold a huge number of tools, accessories and even machines and only take up wall space — perfect for the smallest spaces and closets.

In the same vein, putting up a bit of DIY shelving is a good idea too. If you don’t have space on the floor, put it on the wall!

Alternatively, you could buy a craft bag instead. You can store your machine, accessories and materials in these and tuck it away into a wardrobe or other storage when you’re not using it.

Plus, a bag is obviously ultra portable too — good news for people who like to craft on the go or who travel to a lot of craft shows.

Small Craft Room Essentials

Craft Room Ideas on a Budget

Another challenge to consider when creating your dream craft room is your budget. Can you afford to be buying a large desk, plenty of storage and artwork?

If not, or if you’re feeling like you want to start crafting already, you may want to consider a bit of DIY while you’re researching craft room ideas on a budget.

Firstly, it’s time to assess what your budget actually is — and if you have one at all.

If you do, decide what the ‘priority purchase’ is for your craft room. This will be the one thing that you’ll buy outright instead of making yourself.

For us, it would be getting the biggest desk we could afford. The best desks have the most workspace and storage space so are efficient in a number of ways.

However, if you’re skilled in woodcraft, you might be happy to whip up a table yourself, in which case your budget might go towards storage solutions, or painting the craft room itself.

Here are some more budget craft room tips:

Go hunting — what do already have at home that you could use in your craft room? Any old pieces of furniture that could be refashioned?

Upcycling — a lick of paint (even spray paint) can totally transform old and worn furniture. Time to get creative…

Get monochromatic — Thrift Divingrecommend that you paint all your woods in the same color to make it look not quite so obvious that they’re second hand pieces

Embrace the vintage/rustic look — when you’re using a total hodge podge of different furniture, shelving and storage that you found around town, you’ve really got to embrace it. The vintage look is quirky and beautiful — don’t hide it!

Craft Room Design Inspiration

So, by now you should have a good idea of what you need to buy and design for own craft room.